With her latest film Priscilla earning Sofia Coppola some of the best reviews of her career, the Oscar winner is undoubtedly proud. But one person who might want Sofia to reevaluate it in the future is her father, Francis Ford Coppola, who knows a thing or two (or more…) about revisiting his works.
Speaking with Rolling Stone ahead of the release of Priscilla – which sits at a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, behind only 2003’s Lost in Translation – Sofia Coppola said she is continuously nagged by Francis Ford about tweaking her movies long after their release. “My dad loves to recut his movies, and he’s always saying, ‘You can do that!’…I don’t have any desire to. I feel like they are what they are, even with their baby fat and awkwardness, that’s what I was thinking about at that time.”
Sofia is absolutely correct that Francis Ford has a habit of re-editing his pictures: only a few years after their releases, Coppola combined the first two Godfather films to create the TV miniseries The Godfather Saga; 1979’s Apocalypse Now would get a famous overhaul with 2001’s Redux, adding nearly an hour of footage; he would also fork out a half-million dollars of his own money for a new cut of The Cotton Club, which he subtitled Encore. More recently, he revisited The Godfather Part III to create The Godfather Coda, which is an admirable effort but does, tragically, still feature Sofia…
Unlike Francis Ford, Sofia won’t even be revisiting her lesser works, citing 2006’s Marie Antoinette, which stands as her worst-reviewed movie. “I’m always happy that I get to make what I want to make. I was happy we got to make that movie, but nobody saw it…It was a flop. So the fact that it’s lived on and people talk about it has been really satisfying because so much work went into it. It makes me happy that now it’s kind of found its way and people enjoy it.”
What are your thoughts on director’s re-editing their films? What are some good examples of alternate cuts? Give us your picks below!